


A Gift For Frannie

by look_turtles



Category: due South
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-10
Updated: 2019-03-10
Packaged: 2019-11-15 05:14:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18067256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/look_turtles/pseuds/look_turtles
Summary: After Geocities shuts down, Turnbull writes a fanfic to cheer up Frannie





	A Gift For Frannie

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the ds_flashfiction Prompt: Geocities

Renfield drove through the streets of Chicago at a faster than normal speed (two miles below the speed limit instead of five) and felt his stomach churn. Frannie had called him sobbing and he had left The Consulate and jumped into his orange VW Bug. He didn’t know why she was so upset, but he hoped nothing had happened to Ante. Ante was his second favorite girl with Frannie being his first favorite, of course.

He parked in front of the Vecchio household and ran up the driveway. He was about to knock of the front door when the door flew open and Frannie threw herself into his arms.

She was still sobbing as he held her and stroked her back. She smelled like strawberry scented shampoo and lemon scent soap and normally that would calm him, but not now.

‘What is wrong?’ He asked as Frannie’s tears wetted his shoulder.

‘Geocities is shutting down.’

‘Oh, my,’ he said because he knew how much that website meant to her. She was quite obsessed with a quirky Canadian show called Twitch City and Geocities was were she read Twitch City fan fiction. 

‘Would you like some chocolate?’ He asked as Frannie pulled away from his embrace and wiped her eyes.

‘Sure.’

He took off his Stetson and pulled out a small candy bar he kept there in case of emergencies.

He stayed with Frannie the rest of the day and as they sat on the couch and watched television a idea began to form in his mind.

Later that night, he went to his apartment with a package of ink pens and a ream of paper under one arm. He opened the door to his apartment and stepped inside. He had been told by Detective Vecchio that his apartment was a rat’s nest, but he didn’t see it. The brown walls and carpet were strangely in a city that was mostly gray. The plaster on the ceiling was cracked, but that just gave the apartment character.

Of course his furniture gave it even more character.

Constable Fraser might believe that Renfield lived in a cardboard box, but he most certainly did not he just used them for furniture.

Daisy his pet pig came up to him and he kneeled down and stretched her floppy ear as she oinked happily. Her brown spots stood out against her white body. 

She sniffed at the papers he was still holding and tilted her head.

‘I’m going to write some fan fiction for Frannie to cheer her up,’ he said as he sat the paper and pens on a cardboard box he used for a desk.

‘But first let’s have some dinner.’

After their bellies were filled with salad, he got to work. He thought it would be a simple thing to write about characters that already existed.

Hours later, he groaned as he crumpled up yet another sheet of paper. It wasn’t as simple as it seemed.

He has no idea where to even start or even what the story was going to be about.

Daisy grunted from where she was asleep on top of Renfield’s feet. 

‘I wish you could help me,’ he said as he petted her head. ‘Maybe I need some expert help.’

The next morning, he arrived at the police station. His hands were sweaty and his heart beat was fast, there was no guarantee this plan would work, but he would do anything for Frannie.

He walked into the police station and stood in front of Elaine’s desk.

‘Hello, Ms. Besbriss. I was wondering if I could have a moment of your time?’

‘Sure. What’s up?’ Elaine said with a smile.

‘Well... you see... I need to learn how to write fan fiction.’

Elaine’s eyes went wide and her grin widened. ‘Really? I never pegged you for a fic writer.’

‘It’s not for me. Frannie is feeling rather despondent and I thought perhaps it would cheer her up.’

‘Okay. First things first,’ Elaine said as she opened her desk drawer and pulled out a stack of magazines. ‘Read these.’

‘They have magazines on how to write fan fiction?’ Turnbull said as he took the magazines.

‘I wish. These are fanzines and they have fanfics in them. You should read a couple just to see what other people are doing. It might give you some ideas.’

‘Why thank you. I’m sure they will be a big help.’

‘Great! One more thing. Do you know what a lemon is?’

‘Um... citrus fruit?’

He spent the rest of the morning reading fanzines and learning various fandom terminology. He learned about lemons, limes and aus of every shape and size.

He arrived at The Consulate on time, but he still had no idea what kind of fan fiction to write. He had an idea that he wanted to write Twitch City Curtis/Newbie fiction, but other than that he didn’t know what else to do.

He was dusting The Queen’s bedroom as he thought more about fan fiction. According to Elaine, Frannie was a fan of Curtis/Newbie lemons, but he didn’t think he could write a lemon just yet. It wasn’t that Curtis and Newbie were both men, he wasn’t a bigot, it was that even seeing two people kiss made him blush horribly. Even thinking about sex made him sweat which was strange because he and Frannie had a very active sex life.

After he had finished dusting, he went to the kitchen to make a cup of tea. As he was putting his kettle on he saw a stray cat outside sitting on the window sill. 

Suddenly, he had an idea for a fan fiction. He was going to write a story about Lucy the cat. He had no paper or pens with him so he wrote of wax paper with a bottle of ketchup.

Wax paper and ketchup might not be the traditional medium for writing, but the words flowed and soon he had a long sheet of wax paper spread out before him.

He rewrote the story on real paper with a real pen and waited for his workday to over.

Finally, when work was over he got into his car and drove to the Vecchio house with his fan fiction on the seat next to him.

He made it to the Vecchio house and got out.

He opened the door and Frannie was standing in front of him. She was wearing a yellow shirt that showed off her stomach and a skirt that his grandmother would have called unseemly.

‘Rennie! What a surprise! Come on in.’ Frannie exclaimed as they walked into the house. They sat down on the couch.

‘Whatcha got there?’ She asked pointing to the fan fiction he was holding.

‘Oh... I wrote this... I mean of course I wrote it, but I mean I wrote it for you,’ Turnbull stammered out.

She took the fanfic and he watched her face as she read it. With each passing second, her grin got wider and wider.

Once she was finished, she look up at him. ‘You wrote Twitch City fic for me?’

‘Of course. I wanted to make you feel better after Geocities shut down. Do you like it?’

Frannie leaned forward and kissed him on the lips. ‘I love it!’

As they kissed more, he thought that if his life was a fanfiction he and Frannie would be a OTP.


End file.
